They Are What You Eat: Can Nutritional Factors during Gestation and Early Infancy Modulate the Neonatal Immune Response?
Prentice, Sarah;
(2017)
They Are What You Eat: Can Nutritional Factors during Gestation and Early Infancy Modulate the Neonatal Immune Response?
Frontiers in immunology, 8 (NOV).
1641-.
ISSN 1664-3224
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2017.01641
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The ontogeny of the human immune system is sensitive to nutrition even in the very early embryo, with both deficiency and excess of macro- and micronutrients being potentially detrimental. Neonates are particularly vulnerable to infectious disease due to the immaturity of the immune system and modulation of nutritional immunity may play a role in this sensitivity. This review examines whether nutrition around the time of conception, throughout pregnancy, and in early neonatal life may impact on the developing infant immune system.